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This is the final bonus story for the 13 June 2015 Laptop Funding Prompt call. It comes from the suggestion "something about one of the reincarnated scholars/government officials/whatnots" from[livejournal.com profile] cluudle which was clarified/crystallised by [livejournal.com profile] sauergeek to "The very first reincarnated person. Or the first one to publicly acknowledge it.".

And yes, these two characters feature in Tang-ji history classes.



Chan Zhu surveyed the view from the ridge and said, “There’s a spring in that direction.” He pointed roughly to the west northwest. “We can be there in under an hour. There should be feed for the horses too – it’ll be a good place to camp for the night.”

“Neither of us have ever been here before,” Li Poi was disbelieving, “so how can you know any of that?”

“I just do,” Chan Zhu returned. “Just like I know that back way into Lord Zhou’s stables by way of the armoury.”

“That’s what worries me,” shot back Li Poi. “Sooner or later knowing stuff like that is going to get you into trouble with someone like Lord Zhou. Or someone mouthy is going to decide you’re a demon or something.”

“Hasn’t happened yet,” said Chan Zhu prosaically.

“Only because anyone who works out that there’s something odd going on with you finds that they’ve got more to lose by talking about it than by leaving you alone. Like me,” admitted Li Poi. “Or that nosy old biddy whose grandson you found when he got lost in that cave.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with him going into that cave,” said Chan Zhu, starting his horse down the slope towards the alleged spring site. “His grandmother’s stories about the fortune stashed in there did that.”

Li Poi urged his own mount to follow. “Well, he found it. Not that I’d call what was in that coffer a fortune.”

“It was enough to mend their roof and granary, with enough left over for a cow, a sheep and some chickens,” pointed out Chan Zhu. “It was a fortune to them, but not enough of one to attract unwanted attention.” He was quiet for a few minutes then went on, “You know, Li Poi, it seems to me that people like that old lady and her grandson have to worry far too much about unwanted attention than they should.”

“Hang on, we resemble that remark. We did raid Lord Zhou’s armoury and stable,” pointed Li Poi. “And didn’t I meet you in the condemned cell back in Kailong?”

Chan Zhu asked rhetorically, “Who’d have thought that Zhe Mung would be picky about who was being nice to a wife he’s not interested in?” He went on less whimsically, “And if Lord Zhou was attending to his duties, then we would never have been in a position to equip ourselves at his expense. We would be gainfully employed elsewhere, and his guards would be more diligent. His village headmen wouldn’t have cause to grumble about paying taxes for nothing either.”

Diverted, Li Poi asked, “Are they?”

“Yes, and without any prodding,” his companion replied. “I believe that Lord Zhou is about to lose the favour of heaven.”

“War and chaos then,” commented Li Poi, “until someone else strongarms everyone into thinking that they’re worthy.”

“That could be us,” said Chan Zhu. “We’ve got good horses and bronze swords, thanks to Lord Zhou’s unwitting benevolence. You’re one of the best archers I know. I’m not bad at recruiting and running a war band. By the time the stars start shouting their portents in a few months’ time we can be ready to take advantage.”

“Stars shouting their portents? You’re sounding like a priest or a sorcerer,” commented Li Poi severely.

“There’s a comet that comes back every eighty-seven years,” replied Chan Zhu calmly, “and it’s due soon. We could hire a couple of priests to talk it up….”

“You think you can do a better job than Lord Zhou? You think you can live to do a better job than him?” Li Poi urged his horse forward so he could see his companion’s face.

“Yes,” Chan Zhu sounded oddly confident. “Yes, by the grace of Heaven, I do.”

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This follows on from End Of A Way Of Life, Part 1 and End Of A Way Of Life, Part 2 and runs to 2,388 words.


In the morning it was time for her grandmother’s lizards to be moved and there was a great deal of frenetic activity resulting from a young drake deciding that it was time to be inquisitive and making a break for freedom. Bethany retrieved him from an apple tree and got him into a travelling cage before he could try to bond with a removalist’s offsider, any removalist’s offsider as far as Bethany could tell. With her grandmother switching between blaming Bethany for the escape, accusing the removalist’s offsider of trying to steal her lizard, and wanting Bethany to come with her to ‘settle the lizards in’ it was a fraught hour more before the convoy set off down the driveway for Colpatch. Bethany hoped the offsider was getting extra for having to put up with her grandmother and went to look after her own lizards for a restful half hour.

Read more... )
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This follows on from The End Of A Way Of Life, Part 1. It is 2,973 words of 7,977.

The entire family made a showing at the Huxtable Dragon Lizard Fanciers’ Show. Bethany’s grandmother, Mistress Aimwright to her granddaughters’ contemporaries, won nine ribbons across six categories while Aunt Terilba quietly gained four across three. Aunt Katherine’s vermin presentation won best in show. Simone basked in the glory of a clean sweep of the places in the category of Non-standard Colour, Hens under Twelve Months, and the resulting queries for hatchlings. Bethany merely displayed the three young drakes she wanted to sell, all in the one cage to show their amiability of temperament, and took queries for everyone else while they were busy. All three of her boys, as Bethany thought of them, sold for her asking prices: blue Snuff went to an injured, former military wizard who needed a new familiar, and left riding his new master’s shoulder as if he’d been doing it every day since he’d hatched; Jhorri of the completely recessive colour genes went to Aggadia Montrose, a contemporary of her aunts and almost rival of her grandmother’s; and brown Rhodri sold to a nearly teen whose magic teacher said she was ready for a familiar and whose mother was obviously pleased to have found a suitable one that was inexpensive.

Read more... )

This is now followed by The End Of A Way Of Life, Part 3.
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This is the beginning of one of the bonus stories I owe everyone from Laptop Funding Prompt Request. The prompt was "Please tell me a story about having your heart broken by your grandmother." It follows on from A Day On the Farm and the whole thing comes in at 7,976 words, but this first instalment is only 2,615 of them.

“That stuck-up beep has won,” said Bethany’s grandmother resignedly. “I can’t fight this and I don’t want to fight anymore. What’d be the point? Georgette’s dead; Theda left years ago; Katherine’s taking a job with the university and moving to Greenapple so she can be close to her grandchildren;” she moved from three of her four daughters to her granddaughters, “Delilah and Shapira went off with their father and took up archiving or librarianing or whatever it is that they do; Samantha, Ella and Daphne are all happily married in the Greenapple with nice little studs of their own;” her voice dripped sarcasm as she described her granddaughters’ dragon lizard breeding establishments, “Theodora’s far too busy gallivanting around as a vet to come home and help run this place; and Simone’s going off to marry Humphry Worthmare and live at their stud.”

Read more... )

This is now followed by The End Of A Way Of Life, Part 2.
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I wrote this as the first participation bonus for the Prompt Request. It is written to the only unwritten prompt, Anonymous' " A story about breeding magical animals." It came in at 1,672 words.




Bethany had been up all night in the hatchery. There were rarely problems, but it never hurt to have a set of working fingers and opposable thumbs on hand for when there were, and all of Sojourn Bellatrix Verbena’s latest clutch were all spoken for. Her hatchlings always went for a premium price and it helped that this clutch’s sire, Blackstone Maarten Kenzi, was well known in the fancy as a sound stud, even if his owner wasn’t a breeder.

Read more... )
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In my laptop funding Prompt Request I gave three stretch goals which were all met. Goals two and three were:

"If we reach $20 – I call upon the combined prompters to craft a new, fiendishly clever prompt for me to write to.

If we reach $30 – I will call upon those who have paid for prompts and extensions to craft a devious and confusing prompt for me to write to."

The suggestions I have are for:

1. something about one of the reincarnated scholars/government officials/whatnots;

2. 'the Great Game' with no further clarification; and

3. a story about having your heart broken by your grandmother.

Does anyone have anything else to add?

While you're all thinking about that, I'll go back and see if I have any unwritten, unfunded prompts from that call to write to for the first stretch goal.
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I wrote this to [livejournal.com profile] ankewehner's paid prompt "Breaking of a curse". It runs to 849 words.


When the day came, Avery found that it explained most of the little inconsistencies she’d noticed throughout her life. Little things, like the advanced age of her parents and the rigidity of her school coursework. Big things, to a teenager, like conversations that stopped when she came into the room, the combat arts training she couldn’t give up, and the careful curating of her time and acquaintances.

“You are the clone daughter and sister of the original warrior to face the Guardian of the Causeway,” intoned the Colonial Development Secretary. “Trial and error have shown us that he will tolerate only you, but then…,” his voice trailed off. “There are recordings of our previous attempts to gain passage across the Causeway to the resources beyond the remains of the First Diaspora colony.”

Avery watched those recordings, every single one. It didn’t take as long as she would have hoped for the number of instances involved. “You have been trained to be stronger and faster than your sisters,” the Secretary assured her. “You will be the one to win us passage off this island.”

Avery looked at the almost ruins on the far shore and wondered how many times he’d made that little speech. She turned around to ask one thing but then, “What are my parents doing here?”

“We try to replicate the circumstances of that first meeting as exactly as possible,” the Secretary replied gravely.

Avery looked at him, appalled, and went over to her parents, ignoring the minor officials who tried to steer her back to where she’d been. “I’ve seen the records of what happened before,” she told them. “They shouldn’t have made you come.” There was something in the look her mother gave her back that made her ask, very quietly so as not to be overheard, “How many of me have you raised?”

Her mother, older than Avery’s classmates’ grandparents, replied just as quietly, “You’re the fifth.”

“And they’ve made you come here each time?” She looked at them, dear as her heart to her but nothing like her in appearance.

Her father simply nodded.

“Then it’s up to me to get a better outcome,” she said and hugged them both.

Avery let the officials dress her in their equipment and send her down to the causeway.

The Guardian stood there and, remembering what her predecessors had done and how that had worked out, Avery mirrored his at-rest posture. A voice squawked in her ear piece, “What are you doing?” It was the Secretary. “You should be en guard! You’ve seen how fast-.” Avery shut off the little annoying voice.

“Why do you come?” It was the Guardian who spoke now. “This point marks the border between our two lands.”

“My people seek passage through your lands to the fertile lands and mineral sands beyond your city. Your people do not seem to be using them and we would benefit from more of those than we have.” Avery had been given a card with the words on it and done her best to memorise them.

“My price, as always, is your heart.” The Guardian remained at rest.

Avery realised that this was the point where her previous selves had attacked. Instead, she didn’t change her posture and asked, “Are we taking literally or metaphorically? Because I’m sure medical science will let me hand my still beating heart to you on a platter, if that’s what you want, but honestly, I’d rather not.”

He laughed.

Half an hour later, Avery walked back up the hill to the waiting crowd, a bigger crowd than when she’d left. She hugged her parents again and then turned to the Secretary, “You have your access through the city, sir. On a set of designated paths and not completely unfettered, because there’s a curfew and several seasonal limitations but otherwise, no restrictions.”

“But how? You didn’t fight!” The Secretary looked incredulous.

“If we had, I would have lost,” Avery told him frankly. “What no-one else came back to tell you is that he’s heavily cyborged and in a combat suit. Possibly he’s cyborged into the combat suit.” She shrugged. “Whatever. The agreement is that I live with him in exchange for the access, so I’ll just go and get my stuff-.”

“Wait,” the Secretary grabbed her arm as she turned to go, “you can’t just go off with him like that! It, it’s immoral!”

Avery took his hand off her arm and said loudly, “I’m sorry, but if you think me going to live with him in exchange for what we need is worse than sending how many people to their deaths trying to take the same thing, then perhaps you should take a good, long look at yourself.” She dropped his hand. “And all those versions of me you’ve got growing up right now, you can drop them into the normal schooling stream and start giving them choices. They and their parents get to be free.”

“But-.”

“Secretary,” she smiled at him, “we have a solution to our problem. Please don’t make me think that you’re a new problem.”

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I wrote the first of [livejournal.com profile] ankewehner's paid prompts to her prompt '"I didn't expect those to grow in fields" (or "on trees" or "on vines" or something like that)'. This story came in at 800 words.


“I’ve heard of companion planting, of course,” said Fulgrind as he surveyed the fields before them. “My mother and wife both do it in the garden, mainly marigolds for the nematodes, but this…” Words failed him as he took in the nearly ripe, transparent fruiting bodies of the unfamiliar, sturdy plants dotted through the orchard and clustered around its perimeter.

Read more... )
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I wrote this to Anonymous' prompt "A story about a society where only one sibling is ever allowed to have children." It runs to 382 words.

“We chose Luddy to have the children to avoid this problem,” said Nyix angrily. “She’s supposed to the best gene structure of us all. Or is the problem developmental or teratogenic instead of genetic?”

“Developmental from nutritional deficiency,” replied his sibling, Crux, briskly. “Someone diverted Luddy’s vitamin supplements. Ackers’ family is just as annoyed as we are – they picked him for the same reason we picked her.”

“So, who do we have to thank for baby Sachar’s neural tube defect?” Nyix cracked his knuckles. “Is it someone I can beat up on our nephew’s behalf?”

“His other grandmother,” Crux drummed her fingers on the table. “She claims that she ‘assumed’ all the supplements in the household’s rations were for her because up until now she’s been the only reproducing female there. They went straight into her personal stash so Luddy didn’t even know they’d been delivered and so assumed she didn’t need any.” She sighed and went on, “Yes, Claril is pregnant again but Ackers, his siblings and their father are getting her checked for dementia, not that she’s co-operating.”

“Why would she?” Nyix shook his head, “That’d be an end to her citizenship privileges.”

“As opposed to losing them for deliberately sabotaging another’s pregnancy,” pointed out Crux. “They’re hoping that the examination will prove she’s got one of the environmentally caused dementias.”

“As opposed to a genetically based one or an inheritable psychopathy? I’m sure they do,” observed Nyix. “As do I for Sachar and his future siblings’ sakes. Can anything be done to help him with his current problems?”

“He’s already getting physical therapy treatments,” Crux replied. “Fogit itself is seeing him – apparently one of Ackers’ siblings, Quobar I think, pulled in some favours. Of course, Sachar’s also on the list to be considered for electronic enhancement – they’ve standard adaptations for some particular neural tube defect-caused problems.”

Nyix grunted approvingly and then ventured delicately, “One hears that a new group with biological expertise has been located. Could there be something there?”

Crux’ face shut down and she answered repressively, “I don’t know where you hear these things, Nyix, or why you think I could answer such questions if there were any truth to what you hear.”

Nyix just grinned at her and was glad he knew his sibling so well.


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I wrote this to [livejournal.com profile] ankewehner's prompt "Shiny Beetles." It came in at 353 words.

“Perhaps it was a Christmas beetle,” suggested Gianni. “Professor Tama has been doing a lot of work with those. Their stockholdings were practically undamaged and he’s been able to resurrect almost the entire genus in the original.”

“I know what a Christmas beetle looks like,” Greta told him. “Probably better than you do. Their base colour is yellow/gold. These things were silver.”

“Could be a new one or a completely different genus,” pointed out Gianni. “I heard Professor Tama has some students looking into staghorn beetles.”

“Those are black,” pointed out Greta. “Really, Gianni, sometimes I wonder about you.”

“I can’t do, so I audit,” he shrugged. “It’s my job to ask critical questions and point out flaws. Wouldn’t be the first time someone resurrected something with the wrong colouration. Or worse,” he added reflectively.

“I associate silver with machines more than animals,” said Greta, “and I know that’s an assumption of mine. Speaking of assumptions, Marta told me that you made a fairly big one about Millan.”

Gianni blushed. “I did the reading and then I apologised to Millan and to Marta both. But, back to those silver beetles, did any of the intrusion detectors go off?”

“Well, no,” answered Greta. “Why would they, for a beetle?”

“After the incident in Professor Formora’s lab two years ago, all the detectors are supposed to go off for any lifeform not registered to the lab they’re setup in.”

“So,” said Greta slowly, if our intrusion alarms are working, and I did see something, then that something wasn’t alive?”

“Exactly,” agreed Gianni. “Let me talk to a few people.

*******************

Later there was a meeting in a service room for one of the laboratory complexes. “We have traps in the ducts to and from Professor Tama’s labs,” said Nicholle from Maintenance, “because of his subject matter. After Gianni spoke to us, we checked them and found this,” she showed them a tiny, silver, beetle-shaped object mired in the gluey trap. “It’s definitely mechanical and it’s never been alive.”

“So, where’d it come from?” That was Greta.

Professor Tama added, “And why was it sent here?”


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Dear Gentlebeings,

I need to close my current Prompt Request to new unsponsored prompts tonight. I intend to do this at 11:30pm my time, ie in about two and a half hours.

Please, if you want to take part, now is the time to do it!

Rix
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I wrote this to [livejournal.com profile] ankewehner's prompt "Patchwork Crow." It runs to 329 words.


The bird hopped across the ground, cocking its head to examine what it found as it went. Its feathers were iridescent, the black feathers shining blue, green and red where the sunlight hit them.

“I’m not sure it’s supposed to look like that,” ventured Gianni critically.

“The base material resources weren’t as comprehensive as I would have liked,” agreed Marta. “The original corvid stockholdings were extremely thorough, but that section of the storage facility was badly hit during the magnetic storms and atmospheric inversions. None of the samples appear to be intact, although Palmerstone and Ngomo are still evaluating them. My resurrections are, by necessity, chimeras. Some of the material I used,” she sighed, “wasn’t even corvid.”

“At least your choices were forced by necessity,” Gianni patted her on the shoulder consolingly. “You’ve seen what Millan did with those wrens, haven’t you?”

“Actually, I read his paper too,” Marta was suddenly all frosty, “and I went back and checked the references. That is what the males actually looked like. I think he did a remarkable job to not only resurrect them but build in the species differences as well, given what there was to work with.”

“Oh,” Gianni was suitably abashed, “I assumed that because of his own modifications he was biased towards the unnaturally gaudy. Why did he even work on them? There’s so little material.”

“He was very close to Professor Olson, and the Professor longed to see something from his personal childhood live again before he died. The wrens were the only thing that fit the bill that Millan could get permission to work with.”

As they spoke, the patchwork crow found a suitable white stone, picked it up and flew off with it.

“What does it do with those?” Gianni followed the bird’s flight with his eyes.

“I’m not sure,” admitted Marta, “but it’s documented original species behaviour, and I didn’t program any behaviours into them.”

“Aaah,” Gianni’s eyes glinted with interest, “original data implementation…”



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I wrote this in response to [livejournal.com profile] tuftears's prompt "Steal the Dragon". Because it wouldn't end, it got to 1,251 words.




“It’s the only known surviving example of Empirion work, so of course the client wants it.” As always Lupien Calwilder was careful not to say the client’s name. Mr Calwilder was, officially, an attorney at law and this meeting in his office looked like any other office meeting. Lance Wing was their IT specialist, Julie Luna dealt with all their internal HR issues, while Giles Warden dealt with external HR issues, Claire Heath was the researcher and James Strath was the office driver. Fairly normal, even if most offices didn’t have a dedicated driver. Less normal were Henri Brun and Victor Ivanych Rostov who were the heights specialists, Precious Rambana the safe cracker and alarm specialist, and Mishi Keller the tunnel rat.

Read more... )
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Okay, everyone has been more generous than I expected and we have reached the stretch goal:

"If we reach $30 – I will call upon those who have paid for prompts and extensions to craft a devious and confusing prompt for me to write to."

So, dear all, what set of writing hoops do you want me to jump/move/teleport through for your amusement?
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We have already hit the first two goals I set in the Prompt Request so this post is for you to work out what the "new, fiendishly clever prompt" for me to write will be.

You know who you are, even those wonderful anonymous people among you. So, what do you, collectively, want me to write?
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The initial prompt window is now closed.

As explained elsewhere, I have reason to believe that the laptop I do some of my writing on is dying. The writing concerned is primarily Nai.

Consequently, I have decided to run a prompt call with the aim of getting the funds together for a new laptop faster than I would be able to otherwise. Preliminary investigations in the middle of our current sale season (we’re in the run up to the end of financial year over here) suggest that at the moment I could get a current model equivalent of my existing machine for $500 to $800, Australian. I intend to carry out more specific queries tomorrow and will update this post then.

I do not expect to raise that sort of money through writing to prompts by the end of this month. I am going to run a laptop funding prompt request and see how I go.

On this occasion, the prompts are themeless, so ask for anything you like – except fanfic or porn. The first is out because I don’t follow Enough Things to have any idea who you are talking about, the second because I have to be in the mood and can’t guarantee that. You may, of course, ask for continuations or other further pieces on characters and stories I have already written.

For each prompt, I will write at least 250 words.

Anyone may prompt and get a single prompt written to for free.

Anyone may signal boost and get one additional prompt written to for free. Signal boosting on additional platforms will get you another 100 words added to your minimum word count per platform.

Anyone may pay for a prompt to be written to. There is a button!




Prompts
Anything I need to know?





Anyone may pay for extensions to a written to prompt. There is another button!




Prompt Extensions





Also, there is a money raised tracker:



Participation bonuses:

If we reach $10 – I will write to a randomly selected, unfunded prompt.

If we reach $20 – I call upon the combined prompters to craft a new, fiendishly clever prompt for me to write to.

If we reach $30 – I will call upon those who have paid for prompts and extensions to craft a devious and confusing prompt for me to write to. I will also have to come up with more participation bonuses.

The initial prompt window runs from now, which is late on Saturday, 13 June 15 my time, until late on Wednesday, 17 June 15 my time is now closed. Prompts and extensions may continue to be paid for after this time.

Thank you for your participation.


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